av magazine
Topics, Trends and Theses on Architecture and Design
Welcome to av magazine
This is the place where you will find particularly interesting contributions from our new releases on topics in the realm of architecture and design, ready for you to download as PDFs in chronological order.
We are announcing new issues in our monthly newsletter. Make sure to give it a read!
Your publishers
Dr. Petra Kiedaisch & Bettina Klett
No. 3 / 2025
On using AI in experience design
How leading creatives think about and use AI is also a topic in the new "Experience & Event Design" 2025/2026. Gain insights from an interview by author Katharina Stein with Christoph Diederichs (Atelier Markgraph) and Sören Fricke (SOLIDSENSE).
No. 2 / 2025
Intelligent design for trade fairs
What are the multiple intelligences at hand to design, plan and realise modern trade fairs? The latest volume of the "Brand Experience & Trade Fair Design Annual" by Janina Poesch follows this question by presenting almost 60 example projects.
No. 1 / 2025
The first publication of the Building Department at the HfG Ulm
It's a small sensation: For the first time ever, the HfG-Archiv / Museum Ulm gives a presentation on the Building Department at the University (1953–1968)! A book and an exhibition pay tribute to its evolution, its studies and designs, with the Goethe University Frankfurt and the TU Darmstadt as cooperation partners.
No. 2 / 2024 (German only)
How pasta gets its shape
The points of contact between pasta and design are manifold, whether in the design of the product, the packaging or industrial design. The exhibition and book "al dente. Pasta & Design" of the Museum and HfG Archiv in Ulm for the first time reveal the exciting background of designer pasta, tell the cultural history of the Spätzle genre as well as the worldwide production and marketing apparatus of the objects we all love. Who actually invented the many pasta shapes?
No. 1 / 2024 (German only)
How do I design icons?
In his practical handbook, graphic designer Holger Ziemann
shows us how to design "Icons". He gives an overview of the most important
conditions and elements to make them work – for there are fundamental criteria
in theory and practice you need to know.
Read an excerpt
No. 4 / 2023 (German only)
How shapes and colours came to plastic
One material revolutionised design in the 1960s: "Kunststoff – Zauberstoff" (Plastic – Magic Material). For the first time, this volume looks into the work of the legendary Kunststoffwerkstatt of HfG Ulm and its design icons like the stackable ashtray by Walter Zeischegg or the kitchen machines by Hans Gugelot.
No. 3 / 2023 (German only)
How a design icon came to be
Conceived as a "serial and universally applicable commodity", it began its success story in 1954 at the HFG Ulm's wood workshop. For the first time, "Der Ulmer Hocker" (The Ulm Stool) by the HfG-Archiv in Ulm now illustrates how a simple piece of seating furniture became a globally acclaimed design icon copied, adapted and varied countless times.
No. 2 / 2023
A higher orientation towards the common good
Today, in design it is more urgent than ever to take into view the common good. This is why the iF Design Foundation conducted a study on "Design Education in Germany 2023" to determine the "public value" of courses of design study at German universities. Attached to the study is a list of all study courses.
No. 1 / 2023
On the way towards a retail metaverse
Right on time for the Euroshop 2023, retail expert Jons Messedat tells us about the latest trends in the new Retail Design International, Vol 8. How does metaverse come into play? Where do high-tech and high-touch meet? What do young consumers expect? With contributions, surveys and outstanding projects, he provides insight.
No. 5 / 2022 (German only)
Building climate control in simple strokes
Building has become a complex matter. Architects have to integrate a multitude of energy and technology related requirements and norms. The new book by Prof. Dirk Krutke offers easy access to this basic knowledge through short texts and compact sketches.
No. 4 / 2022 (German only)
Rediscovered: Günter Behnisch as an architectural theorist
Günter Behnisch is not listed as a notable author or even architectural theorist in any of the common overviews and anthologies on architectural theory. On the occasion of his 100th birthday on June 12, 2022, his late birth as an architectural theorist is indicated for the first time in the reader "Über Architektur" (On Architecture). Here is an excerpt from the preface by Stephan Trüby:
No. 3 / 2022 (German only)
What are the costs of an exhibition?
In fact, it is possible to give a good estimate of these costs for designers – says the new fee schedule for exhibition design HOAS 2, offering extensive checklists, calculations, fee tables and contract templates.
No. 2 / 2022 (German only)
Homely office instead of home office?
Is our workplace becoming more and more of a living room? Is mobile work all we want? In his reader "New Work – New Office", Architectural Researcher Mark Phillips from the Hochschule Coburg gives an overview of the latest findings in the design of new working environments.
No. 1 / 2022 (German only)
On building in the future
What amount of resources and energy is consumed in the process of building? What emissions are caused by creating buildings? With the first volume of his trilogy "non nobis", architect and engineer Werner Sobek gives a global analysis on the status quo of building – an alarming world report.
No. 5 / 2021 (German only)
Understanding and organising data protection the safe way
How can I protect my mental property? What do I have to consider when posting to social media? Or downloading from them? And what is it about the new rules of data protection in the DSGVO? Whom do I allow to handle my data and for what? How do I correctly deal with the data of my business contacts? These questions are answered by "Datenschutz für Designer".
No. 4 / 2021
How do you actually build a people's theater?
As simple as necessary, so as not to cause any fear about entering in the audience, and as chic as possible, because theater is not only about staging on stage. This is the answer of the architectural firm Lederer, Ragnarsdóttir, Oei (Stuttgart) and the construction company Reisch (Bad Saulgau). More on this in their book "Münchner Volkstheater" and in the following excerpt.
No. 3 / 2021
How event design is transforming
With a Special Edition, the new Event Design Yearbook 2021 / 2022 takes a look at the latest developments in the industry. How are interaction, participation, creation and technologies changing in the design of events and which solutions put this into perfect practice? Besides 40 international highlights, experts share their thoughts on the future, such as Dr. Torsten Fremer from Klubhaus in an interview with author Katharina Stein.
No. 2 / 2021
On the future of design education
250 experts from four continents conducted five years of research together with the iF Design Foundation and published the results in the "Whitebook on the Future of Design Education". Read this excerpt to find out what is lacking and what skills and techniques are required to equip junior designers with what they need for the future.
No. 1 / 2021
How plants stimulate well-being in your working environment
You wish for a better room climate, more nature and inspiration in your working environment? In her book "Plants at Work", greenterior designer Miriam Köpf introduces a variety of offices she has lovingly planned and fitted with plants. A companion for all those looking to "green up" their work spaces.
No. 6 / 2020
The future shift of trade fair stands
Seven new trends have been spotted by Sabine Marinescu and Janina Poesch, authors of the Trade Fair Design Annual 2020/21. With an array of international examples – real, hybrid and virtual – they provide insight into a scene which is massively changing. And they put the evidence right before us: The "New Normal" is already starting to take shape.
No. 5 / 2020
Why museums remain reliable venues
Museums and their exhibitions continue their amazing success story. The new volume in the series, new exhibition design, showcases international trends in exhibition design and scenography, on 516 pages and with 110 projects. The editors prove that an alarming paradigm change for the museum is not expected; it is only a case of using knowledge and skills differently.
No. 4 / 2020
What the event industry can learn from festivals
Crises, in spite of everything, have always produced something new: new agency models, new values, new attitudes. In an interview with agency head Cedric Ebener, the Event Design Yearbook 2020 / 2021 opens up perspectives on events with and after corona. The successful experience architect reveals what designers of brand experiences can learn from festival organisers.
No. 3 / 2020 (German only)
scenography is ... amazement
From the origins of scenography to the present day, the art of staging in space has been putting people in amazement. But the means have massively changed. Our scenography compendium shows for the first time which analogue and digital instruments are at hand, how to use them, which luminaries one should know and where to this discipline is evolving.
No. 2 / 2020
Design between old clichés and new concepts
"Reading goes on": one could scarcely express it better than DIE ZEIT! Especially during these times, books are good for the soul and a whole wealth will be published again in the spring. Our rising star: "Not My Thing – Gender in Design" by Katharina Kurz and Pia Jerger. From a young perspective, they satirise common stereotypes and prove that girls do not always love pink and boys do not always prefer blue!
No. 1 / 2020
The future of retail is hybrid
How can the retail sector respond to the changed requirements and wishes of customers of all generations and what retail concepts show perspectives for the new 20s? In the new Retail Design International Vol. 5, experts venture a look into the future and see a decade of collage that merges different spheres of life – hybrid spaces.